Every September, many of the world’s presidents, prime ministers, and foreign ministers descend on New York City to mark the start of the annual session of the United Nations General Assembly, writes CFR President Richard N. Haass. This year, they will once again highlight the international community's inability to address a pressing global challenge.

Delegates from twenty countries discuss how best to address challenges posed by growing geopolitical rivalries, opposition to globalization, dramatic refugee flows, divergent views on global economic governance and international internet regulation, and the absence of a region-wide security architecture in Asia.

Turkey was selected to host the World Humanitarian Summit in recognition of its generous foreign assistance and refugee policies, but it comes as the country pursues increasingly illiberal policies, says expert Kemal Kirişci.

Although the Hashemite Kingdom has vitiated its most potent tribal and Islamist domestic political opposition, the Muslim Brotherhood. But as the risk of domestic unrest has diminished, the potential for spillover from the Syrian conflict has grown, posing an increasing threat to Jordan.

Among Syrian refugees in Turkey, marriage is sometimes seen as the best option to keep daughters fed, alive and safe, by parents overwhelmed by life’s perils and its costs — but 15-year-old Asma has other plans.

I sat in the resort town of Izmir, Turkey, in a clean and dimly lit living room filled with eight children sporting sweet smiles and bare feet. They played and joked like children anywhere, except they were undernourished and underdressed for the biting winter chill that was pushing me to zip up my lined winter parka.